Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Henry Waxman Helped Close the Fifth Street Post Office

Santa Monica and Congressman Henry Waxman are synonymous. Whether they share the same concerns, however, remains in doubts, since the Fifth Street Post Office is set to close, and Waxman has done nothing but write letters and lament its final days. Moreover, Waxman is much to blame for the closure of the “New Deal” era post office, since he co-sponsored a “raw deal” in seven years ago: "The 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act" (PAE), which requires the United States Postal Service (USPS) to fund health benefits for postal workers seventy-five years in advance.

The USPS declining revenue is not just the fault of technology or private services, but a “health insurance mandate” which will now prevent the postman from ringing once (let alone twice) on Saturdays, plus the massive layoffs which will ensue. Under Waxman’s tenure, Congress not only passed legislation which doomed the USPS to a trudged trek of unsustainability, but now his signature legislation, ObamaCare, is driving up health care costs and diminishing access to proper health care for all Americans.

Congressman Henry Waxman decided that steroid abuse in baseball merited more attention than our homeless veterans. He spent hours picking on Big Tobacco CEOs. He investigated lead in toys instead of investigating and invigorating the Brentwood VA. His hastening the decline of USPS is just inexcusable, and should stoke enough outrage that even Santa Monica residents will throw up their hands in resigned disgust with “their” Congressman, who has taken them for granted for so long.